CRME@paypal.com is their Exexcutive Escalation Dept. As far as I'm concerned, PayPal is violating the Rico Act: they are an organization with systems in place to commit fraud, to break banking laws, and a whole lot more. I have filed complaints with the Minnesota AG, the OCC (Treasury Dept.), FTC, and the FBI. The FBI has actually scheduled me for an interview. They are acting as a Bank, but have falsified their activities to avoid jurisdiction under the OCC. If the OCC regulated them, they could not get away with what they do. They operate a widespread, well engineered system based on coming up with every conceivable delay for responses to anything and everything in order to hold the customers' funds longer than they should. This deprives their customers of earning interest on their money, and allows PayPal to fraudulently profit with getting this interest for themselves. Based on their large customer base, this generation of fraudulent interest income is millions of dollars. I encourage everyone to take PayPal into Small Claims Court on an incident-by-incident basis to recover damages on the lost interest from PayPal's unending parade of delays, account freezes, ridiculous customer service responses, etc. If we all join together and keep them in Court by overwhelming them with Small Claims Actions, we might be able to impact things. Certainly we should be able to get more of a following, and perhaps the attention of a U.S. Attorney looking for the next Enron. How many eMail responses have you gotten from their customer service dept. that absolutely make no sense whatsoever; how many times do they tell some generic reason for suspending your account for security reasons, but yet are unable to provide any documentation whatsoever.

I just sent an email to the NYS Attorney General and to Jacoby and Meyers (who have or had a class action lawsuit pending, anyone know the status of that suit?).

Here is what happened to me:

I've heard others complain about them, their fees, etc. I've had a Pay Pal account for a long time, never had any problem with them, had nice smooth transactions, bought and sold stuff with ease. I haven't sold anything in over a year but never had any complaints, no chargebacks, no disputes, in fact, got awesome feedback on e-bay. And the reverse is true also.

It starts with my move, I cannot update my address or phone number on there site. They send a letter with a code to my old address (which never gets forwarded to my new address). Nevertheless, I am able to continue using Pay Pal to make purchases which is nice since I'm in a rural area now and do a lot of online purchases.

Then they put restrictions on my account. I finally get someone to deal with my address change but afterwards they not only refuse to remove the restrictions they are closing my account due to "high risk activity". HUH? So I ask what that activity is. They claim (at first) that it has to do the things I've sold. I sold some clothing and I think an old pen tablet and as I said, the transactions were smooth, great feedback, blah, blah. When I tell them this they then decide it's because of the items I've purchased recently. My last purchase was a CD of by a street performer someone posted a link to on Plime. A $15 CD, I think the guy is in Italy, not sure. They tell me I purchased some items in September (and while on the phone I couldn't remember what, but now recall it was off ebay and it was a remote control for my camera and some lens thing, maybe a $30 transaction, the guy I purchased from was in Poland but had an ebay account and I transacted through that). In any event, this seems "high risk" to them (although their recorded hold chatter repeatedly says "why not purchase from global vendors...blah, blah" so it would be remarkable if it's because these two purchases were made out of country that they now consider me high risk). They will not give me specifics on how any of those purchases are high risk and furthermore will not allow me to appeal this. And in order to get any further information they said I have to Subpoeana the information. WHAT???

I'm furious. I don't care a wit about Pay Pal or having an account with them, they can kiss my lily-white buttocks. BUT I am so offended they are making this accusation of risk, based on NOTHING and then not providing a rationale or further information without me having to hire an attorney and filing a suit. I'll investigate if this falls under the parameters of FOIA but I suspect that's only government agencies not corporations. I fully read their user agreement. I have not violated any of their rules, and nowhere does it say they can just arbitrarily close your account. Their whole premise is to act as an agent for the exchange of money for goods of some sort, which is exactly how I used them. My purchases have all been for either computer, clothing, and camera equipment. WTF?

I have no idea what is up or why, I don't even care about the account or the money left in there, I'm just so mad that they won't tell me why. Their excuse is "if they divulged why then someone might be able to get around their system". So, not only are they accusing me of some imaginary risky behavior that (according to their user agreement I haven't violated) but if they tell me why, I'm then going to engage in some other subversive activity. Do they think they're the NSA? It's MY information, what could I do to get around their system and why after all this grief, would I want to?

I'm going to get an answer. It might take awhile, but then, I don't have anything to lose.

Thanks for posting your letter to the attorney general on this board. I'm going to present it to the Supreme court Judge that will be presiding over the Mehmet_vs_Paypal case in New York. I want to take this case in front of a Jury. This is crazy. Paypal is out of control and MUST be stopped.

paypalucankissmyass, You're a great example showing how persistence pays off. Contacting your state's attorney general office or the California Office of the Attorney General (Jerry Brown -- a known consumer advocate and anti-big-business guy) is a great move to get PayPal to act.

I have said this over and over again -- don't put all your eggs into the Better Business Bureau basket (plus do not forget the BBB relies on the very companies it monitors for dues payments and other financial support), complain to your state's govenment agencies.

RobertD, Can you send me the attorney general's address? I am flabbergasted that Paypal's actions haven't been sanctioned by the state that they operate out of! They cannot be operating legally!!

I sold something for a large sum of money ($1,600)and my account was limited because of "suspicous activity". I had to provide my bank and credit card information directly onto their website and fax them a copy of my Driver's license, utility bills and pay check stub. The purchaser sent confirmation of reciept and they still will not release my account. Now they want the bill of sale and the name and contact of my supplier. I have told them the item was inherited and originally purchased by my grandmother in the 1920s so that does not exist and they refuse to release the funds. The purchaser has offered to cancel the payment and pay me via another method but since PP has all my information I am concerned that they will mess up my checking account or credit. I cannot believe this could possibly be legal and to boot they charged me $45 for the privledge!

Anyway, if you have the AG's information it will save me time trying to find out where PP is at etc... I don't think I will drop this regardless of the outcome. I wonder if there is a federal agency I can contact. Paypal and eBay should be looked at as a monopoly and split up (You do know that eBay owns Paypal thats why to use eBay you almost have to have a paypal acccount!)

Perhaps you can give me some advice. I will most likely be taking legal action against Paypal in the near future but in the meantime I would like to try to get my funds released. Who is crme@paypal.com? How did you get the Attorney general directly involved? I have filed complaints with the AG's in NY and CA but I have only received form letter responses.

Paypal is not only holding my funds in excess but they are also holding them for no justifiable reason. My husband had an old account (over one year) with a chargeback dispute of $46. His account is in no way related to my account which is in very good standing but they have decided to freeze all $278 in my account anyway. My husband has already given the con artist his $46 back but apparently that doesn't matter either. The worst part is that I receive an average of $1200 a month in payments via Paypal from my business which is no longer the case with a frozen account. I cannot even pay my advertisers because most of them accept Paypal only. Is it possible to claim damages for the detrimental effect this is having on my business?

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This might be a violation of the class action settlement agreement. They are not supposed to hold more than the amount in dispute. So if you have a lawyer, have them get a copy of the settlement agreement. Also paypal says they will only hold the disputed amount.

So according to the above statement, Paypal owes me money.
I earned $1700 from selling camera lenses in my limited account, which has been somehow linked to another account with a -$388 balance.
By the terms of the class action settlement, does Paypal then owe me money because they can not hold more than the disputed amount in the limited account?
If that's the case, I will fire back right away. At least get most of the money back first and not risk losing all of it 180 days later.
Please advise.
Thanks in advance.

<Brandi>,i had been successfully selling louis vuitton,gucci prada replicas handbags/shoes wallets etc for 2 years until last sept last year. they froze one pp asked for inventory, gave some receipts made in chinese they gave me parting ways statement. What i didnt realise at that point is they will go to great lengths ip address,mac code cookies etc so soon to follow were my other two. Also dont make the mistake of linking a new paypal to an existing ebay account which has had a paypal limitation. i have been given parting ways statement 6 imes over with funds tied. yes they will release your money after 180 days. they will email you as if you wouldnt already know the date and when you log into it all you can do is withdraw.

i have read that best way is to not attach your paypal to ebay checkout. Each time you sell log into paypal and manually send payment request select (goods) other i.e no brand names just put bag.i personally havent tried it (exhausted with all other frozen accounts) but have been told it works. downside to this is some buyers may query.Good luck!

I completely agree. They just step on the little guys to get what they want. They can bully people like us around because they have the power and money to. Just b/c they're a large company doesn't mean they should get away with it.

I was selling replica handbags which the majority of the people on ebay sell and they suspended my ebay account and froze my PayPal accounts. I just don't understand why. I never said they were authentic, so it wasn't sold under false pretenses. How did it work for you? Did you end up getting your money?

<Brandi>,brandi what items wre you selling that raised a flag? reason i ask is i have had many a paypal frozen where they have asked for inventory i cannot provide(replica items) so i am waiting for 180 days six times over.

<Brandi>, what the bankers need to do is just hand out the money for free to stimulate the economy. What ya think? Is what I say make sense or too far fetched to be a reality?
This money swindling is evil that's why we're all screwed royally. The scammer is taking out of someone cause desperate for money and the family that is in need of the money is further put in debt.
The way the bankers like it? The poorer we are, the richer they are.

Hi Laurie,
I'm almost in the same boat. I was screwed by both ebay and PayPal without an explanation. I too am a SAHM with 3 small children all 3 years and under. I tried to help the family by makins some extra income and instead ended up costing us $1800.00+ of our own money. I am making sure to try and sully their reputation as best I can. I have told almost everyone I could about my situation and am going to start directing them to this site so they can see it's not just me. Sorry for your loss.

I have tried this and they don't seem to care. In the matter of a month, they have cost me $1,800.00. They keep telling me to wait 6 months for money that they shouldn't be allowed to hold. The only explination they have given is that the items I sell send up a red flag. Does this entitle them to keep my funds? This really sucks since I have my account tied up to other things that I do online such as surveys and the like. I make it a point to tell everyone I know about the business, but they're so big and the amount of people I can get to stop using them will seem futile at best. How can such a big company feel small losses? It really shouldn't be allowed to continue this way just because they are a big company. Crooks are crooks.

<LAURIE>,
If you get any answers, please let me know. I sold a $300 book for $100, and sent it out 2 days (which was a Thursday by the way) after the listing ended. 3 days later the guy filed a complaint that he hadn't received it yet. I'm in RI, he's in Iowa. I finally gave in and refunded his money (both ebay & paypal accounts frozen). Apparenly ebay or payapl informed other buyers who had paid through paypal that my account was frozen (so much for privacy) and just when I thought it was over SLAP! another claim.
The funny thing is I'm a stay-at-home mom with 4 kids and a husband w/ MS who works 50+ hours a week. I though if I could make some money from home, he wouldn't have to work so much. Now we've taken nearly a $400 loss. So much for making life easier!!! I would never use paypal or ebay again!!!!